


Locks on the Wardrobe Door

by BlackEyedGirl



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Prompt Fic, Sharing Clothes, five things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-02
Updated: 2010-12-02
Packaged: 2017-10-13 12:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/137229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackEyedGirl/pseuds/BlackEyedGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or, Five items of clothing Mark steals from Eduardo, and one that Eduardo steals from Mark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Locks on the Wardrobe Door

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt response for the [mark_eduardo](http://community.livejournal.com/mark_eduardo/24101.html?thread=482597#t482597) comm on LJ, for clothes thievery

5.

The jacket was not the first thing. Mark’s wearing it when Eduardo smashes the computer, and Eduardo wore it in the California rain, so it ends up invested with more significance than it deserves, but it’s not the first thing.

(Eduardo watches Mark on a television screen, crossing to a makeshift stage. Outdoors, for a tech event, which seems weird to him but then Eduardo’s still something of a traditionalist. And it’s been two years but Mark is still wearing his jacket)

 

*

1.

They’ve known each other for about a month, and Mark has been late for approximately two thirds of that. Eduardo stands up, outside Mark’s room, when Mark finally turns up. Mark blinks at him – an expression Eduardo is beginning to find familiar - not like he’s surprised Eduardo is still there, but as though he either wasn’t sure Eduardo would be there at all, or he assumed that he would wait there forever. Mark seems perpetually slightly out of step with the rest of the world.

Eduardo unclasps the watch from his wrist and deposits it into Mark’s hand. “Lunch tomorrow. One-thirty, try and remember?” Mark closes his fingers around the watch, barely missing Eduardo’s retreating hand. Eduardo goes back to his room, without Mark saying anything else to him. He’s willing to wait for Mark to arrive, but he can’t stay there any more – he really does need to study. Even he doesn’t know why he waited so long.

(He takes the watch back a week later, not because it’s expensive, or because his mother gave it to him. It’s just that it has no appreciable effect on Mark’s time keeping. The watch sits heavy on his arm, bumping against the edge of the laptop, but Mark pays it no notice. While also apparently not realising that social protocol doesn’t allow him to _keep_ something just because it was freely offered once. So Eduardo takes it back.)

 

*

2.

Mark is in his room, with Erica. Eduardo tries to back out in a hurry, but Mark spots him. “Wardo, help us with this?”

Erica laughs, and spins Mark out of her grasp before Eduardo can speak. Mark is wearing a tie. Or almost wearing it – the silk is in an untidy snarl beneath his shirt collar. They must be going out.

Eduardo looks at it. “You’re wearing my tie.”

Erica smiles at him. “Sorry, Mark has no sense of property-rights. And also no ties.”

“I have ties,” Mark says.

“You have one tie. I asked if you had any others and you said, and I quote, ‘I can get one.’”

“And I did.”

“You stole Eduardo’s!”

“You helped.”

She laughs at Eduardo, over Mark’s shoulder. They’ve always got along; they understand each other. She says, “I don’t know how you haven’t strangled him yet.” She mimes the motion, with the tie.

Eduardo smiles back at her, and takes the ends of the tie from her hands. “This is what you want help with?”

“Would you? We have dinner reservations and _someone_ -.”

The two of them dissolve back into bickering, and Eduardo lets it wash over him. He settles his thumbs in the air above Mark’s neck, and begins fixing the knot.

(Mark brings this one back, after the break-up. It had been in Erica’s dorm, apparently, returned in a box with the rest. Eduardo wraps it around his hands and tries to be a good friend.)

 

*

3.

Maybe it’s just that Eduardo has more clothes than Mark. Or more clean clothes, anyway. He doesn’t notice the scarf is missing until Dustin picks it up from the couch and says, “Mark, can I borrow this?”

Mark doesn’t look away from the screen. “It’s Wardo’s.” Which puts paid to Eduardo’s other theory: that Mark doesn’t actually understand the difference between Eduardo’s things and Mark’s things.

Dustin says, “You’ve been wearing it for the past three days. Though only indoors. Weird.”

Chris says, “Well, outdoors, it clashes with the flip-flops,” and throws a smirk at Dustin.

Mark says, “I expect to be cold outdoors. It’s New England in November. Indoors I have different expectations but apparently our Building Manager disagrees.”

Eduardo asks, “So you stole my scarf?”

“You have lots of scarves. I borrowed one of them. You can take it back. Or lend it to Dustin, I guess. It’s entirely your prerogative.”

Dustin holds his hands up in a universal ‘not getting involved’ gesture. Chris says, “I have a scarf. Maybe take it?” Dustin goes with Chris to find this alleged scarf.

Eduardo throws his scarf at Mark, who wraps it around his neck. He shrugs and it covers his mouth, which is distracting.

(Eduardo’s not sure he ever gets the scarf back. It was cold a lot, that term, and if Mark hadn’t stolen one, Eduardo would have pressed it on him anyway.)

*

4.

It’s two am and Mark has progressed to t-shirt theft. It’s thin white cotton, and Eduardo normally wears it to sleep, so he’s not completely sure how Mark even got hold of it. They’re not the same size either. Eduardo is a little less broad but much taller – the shirt sits wrong across Mark’s body. Eduardo can tell this even with Mark hunched over the computer.

“You’re wearing my shirt.”

“Yes,” Mark agrees.

“Why?”

“I have no clean laundry.”

“So go do some.”

“I’m busy.”

“Are you expecting someone else to clean your clothes for you?”

“What? No. I’ll do it. When I’m-.”

“Not busy,” Eduardo fills in.

“Yes.”

“When do you anticipate that being, exactly?”

“When I’m done. When I finish this, then I can take a break, and do some laundry and clean the- whatever Dustin is insisting needs to be cleaned. But I need to finish this first.”

Eduardo sighs. “Okay. Okay, sure. Is there anything I can do to-?”

“No. Just- just let me work.”

(That’s another thing Eduardo never gets back. It would seem ridiculous, chasing Mark down for every stupid thing he ever took from Eduardo. Like a girl with a cardboard box and his name on it.)

 

*

1.

Eduardo tugs the hoodie off Mark’s unresisting shoulders and says, “There.”

Mark stares blankly at him. “Eduardo.”

There are other people around the offices, which Eduardo doesn’t seem to register, but then they’re not high on Mark’s list of priorities right now either. He can hear the noise levels change, but other than that, he doesn’t really care. Eduardo is in the office.

Mark says, “Eduardo, what-?”

“You know you went on national television wearing my jacket?”

Mark thinks about this. “Okay?”

“And you don’t even remember, you asshole.”

“I remember the jacket. I just don’t remember when I was on TV.”

“But you know it was my jacket.”

“Of course I know it’s your jacket. I’ve also got a shirt, two scarves, a tie, and a set of cufflinks. You lend me a lot of clothes. That doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten which-”

Eduardo is smiling, which is definitely worthy of note. Mark just doesn’t know why. Eduardo pulls Mark’s hoodie on over his shirt. He says, “I’m borrowing this.”

“Okay.” Mark has others and anyway Eduardo is pulling that one tight around his chest and Mark wouldn’t know how to begin taking it away from him.

Eduardo nods, shoving his fingers into the pockets. “Okay.”

“What should I do if I need it back?”

Eduardo grins at him, blinding. “Come and take it.”

(Mark does go to Eduardo, bringing the other jacket as a peace-offering, since Eduardo apparently finds it significant enough to come to California. Mark hadn’t imagined that Eduardo cared so much about any particular item of clothing. Still, he takes the invitation where he finds it. If a jacket will get him through Eduardo’s door, then that’s what he’ll bring. Better than settlement papers. Though somehow they never do quite get around to swapping them back over.)


End file.
